Dallas Voice cartoonist nominated for important award

Movies have Oscar, theaters have Tony, even scifi writers have Hugo. But comic artists? Well, they have Harvey. The Harvey Awards have been around for about 10 years, and recognize artists, writers, letterers, colorists and all the folks who turn pencil drawings and ideas into works of art, political commentary, humor and more. There are 21 categories, like best syndicated strip or panel (nominees this year include Pearls Before Swine and Zippy the Pinhead),best artist (with Batman and Daredevil in the running) and best online comic (including Berke Breathed and Mark Stokes).

Wait a second… Berke Breathed, legendary Texan and creator of the recently revived Bloom County… is up against… Mark Stokes?

Stokes, as regular readers of Dallas Voice know, contributes regularly here with his Drawing Dallas Sketches, profiling ordinary North Texans in amazingly accurate caricatures. (He also designed the Ask Howard author logo.) But Mark also has an online comic strip called Zombie Boy (we wrote about his Kickstarter campaign a few years ago). And it’s his work there that has landed him a coveted slot as a finalist for this year’s Harvey Awards, which will be presented Saturday during Baltimore Comic-Con.

“Win or lose, just being nominated it a real honor,” Mark told me about the thrill of being in the running. “It’s a slightly unreal feeling — this [recognition] is something I’ve wanted since I started creating comics back in the 1980s.”

We’re just excited to know one of our friends is getting a shout-out for work he’s done… then again, we’ve known about his talent for a long time. Fingers crossed, Mark!